The popularity of Prime Minister Robert Fico shrank by six percentage points this month. While he enjoyed the trust of 38.4 percent of Slovak citizens in July, it was 32.4 percent in August. Despite this drop, Mr. Fico remains Slovakia's most trusted politician, according to an opinion poll, which the UVVM polling agency of the Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic conducted among 1,247 respondents on August 1-7. The support for President Ivan Gasparovic, the second in the chart, also decreased. A total of 17.6 percent of the polled trusted the head of state, compared to 20.7 percent in July. Leader of the Slovak National Party SNS Jan Slota closes the top three most trusted politicians in Slovakia with 10.4 percent (13.3 percent in July).
The survey showed that Interior Minister Robert Kalinak is the fourth most trusted politician on the Slovak political scene, with 9.7 percent (12 percent in July). He was followed by the opposition SDKU-DS deputy chairwoman and presidential candidate Iveta Radicova. She was the sole politician in the top five whose popularity grew from July's 6.2 percent to 8.8 percent this month. The top ten also includes Vladimir Meciar (7.9 percent), Mikulas Dzurinda (5 percent), Bela Bugar (4.2 percent), Ivan Miklos (3.9 percent) and Pavol Hrusovsky (3.3 percent).
Based on own consideration and without any suggestions, the polled could name a maximum of three Slovak politicians whom they currently trust. A total of 25.5 percent of the respondents trust none of the Slovak politicians.